Page:EB1911 - Volume 10.djvu/670

 with a passion for the chase, to the preservation of forests, and to the establishment of an admirable system of forest cultivation, almost as carefully conducted as field tillage. The Black Forest stretches the whole length of the grand-duchy of Baden and part of the kingdom of Württemberg, from the Neckar to Basel and the Lake of Constance. The vegetation resembles that of the Vosges; forests of spruce, silver fir, Scotch pine, and, mingled with birches, beech and oak, are the chief woods met with. Until comparatively recent times large quantities of timber derived from these forests were floated down the Rhine to Holland and also shipped to England. Now the greater part of it is used locally for construction, or it is converted into paper pulp. In the grand-duchy of Hesse the Odenwald range of mountains, stretching between the Main and the Neckar, contains the chief supply of timber. In the province of Nassau there are the large wooded tracts of the Taunus mountain range and the Westerwald.

In Rhenish Prussia valuable forests lie partly in the Eifel, on the borders of Belgium, and on the mountains overhanging the Upper Moselle, but they do not furnish such stately trees as the Black Forest and the Odenwald. The Spessart, near Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, is one of the most extensive forests of middle Germany, containing large masses of fine oak and beech, with plantations of coniferous trees, such as spruce, Scotch pine and silver fir. Bavaria possesses other fine forest tracts, such as the Baierischewald on the Bohemian frontier, the Kranzberg near Munich, and the Frankenwald in the north of the kingdom. North Germany has extensive forests on the Harz and Thüringian Mountains, while in East Prussia large tracts of flat ground are covered with Scotch pine, spruce, oak and beech.

Every German state has its forest organization. In Prussia the department is presided over by the Oberland Forstmeister at Berlin, while each province, or part of a province, has an Oberforstmeister, under whom a number of Oberförsters administrate the state and communal forests. These, again, are assisted by a lower class of officials called Försters. The Oberförsters throughout Germany are educated at special schools of forestry, of which in 1909 the following nine existed: In Prussia: at Eberswalde and Münden. In Bavaria: at Munich and Aschaffenburg. In Saxony: at Tharand. In Württemberg: at Tübingen. In Baden: at Carlsruhe. In Hesse: at Giessen. In the grand-duchy of Saxony: at Eisenach.

The schools at Munich, Tübingen and Giessen form part of the universities at these places; that at Carlsruhe is attached to the technical high school; the others are academies for the study of forestry only, but there is a tendency to transfer them all to the universities. The subordinate staff are trained for their work in so-called silvicultural schools, of which a large number exist. In this way the German forests have been brought to a high degree of productiveness, but the material derived from them falls far short of the requirements, although the forests occupy 26% of the total area of the country; hence the net imports of timber amount already to 4,600,000 tons a year, and they are steadily rising.

France.—The principal timber tree of France is the oak. The cork oak is grown extensively in the south and in Corsica. The beech, ash, elm, maple, birch, walnut, chestnut and poplar are all important trees, while the silver fir and spruce form magnificent forests in the Vosges and Jura Mountains, and the Aleppo and maritime pines are cultivated in the south and south-west. About one-seventh of the entire territory is still covered with wood.

Forest legislation took its rise in France about the middle of the 16th century, and the great minister Sully urged the enforcement of restrictive forest laws. In 1669 a fixed treatment of state forests was enacted. Duhamel in 1755 published his famous work on forest trees. Reckless destruction of the forests, however, was in progress, and the Revolution of 1789 gave a fresh stimulus to the work of devastation. The usual results have followed in the frequency and destructiveness of floods, which have washed away the soil from the hillsides and valleys of many districts, especially in the south, and the frequent inundations of the last fifty years are no doubt caused by the deforesting of the sources of the Rhone and Saône. Laws were passed in 1860 and 1864, providing for the reforesting, “reboisement,” of the slopes of mountains, and these laws take effect on private as well as state property. Thousands of acres are annually planted in the departments of Hautes and Basses Alpes; and during the summer of 1875, when much injury was done by floods in the south of France, the Durance, formerly the most dangerous in this respect of French rivers, gave little cause for anxiety, as it is round the head waters of this river that the chief plantations have been formed. While tracts formerly covered with wood have been replanted, plantations have been formed on the shifting sands or dunes along the coast of Gascony. A forest of Pinus pinaster, 150 m. in length, now stretches from Bayonne to the mouth of the Gironde, raised by means of sowing steadily continued since 1789; the cultivation of the pine, along with draining, has transformed low marshy grounds into productive soil extending over an area of about two million acres. The forests thus created provide annually some 600,000 tons of pit timber for the Welsh coal mines.

The state forest department is administered by the director-general, who has his headquarters at Paris, assisted by a board of administration, charged with the working of the forests, questions of rights and law, finance and plantation works.

The department is supplied with officers from the forest school at Nancy. This institution was founded in 1824, when M. Lorentz, who had studied forestry in Germany, was appointed its first director.

Italy.—The kingdom of Italy comprises such different climates that within its limits we find the birch and pines of northern Europe, and the olive, fig, manna-ash, and palm of more southern latitudes. By the republic of Venice and the duchy of Genoa forestal legislation was attempted at various periods from the 15th century downwards. These efforts were not successful, as the governments were lax in enforcing the laws. In 1789 Pius VI. issued regulations prohibiting felling without licence, and later orders were published by his successors in the pontifical states. In Lombardy the woods, which in 1830 reached nearly down to Milan, have almost disappeared. The province of Como contains only a remnant of the primitive forests, and the same may also be said of the southern slopes of Tirol. At Ravenna there is still a large forest of stone pine, Pinus pinea, though it has been much reduced. The plains of Tuscany are adorned with planted trees, the olive, mulberry, fig and almond. Sardinia is rich in woods, which cover one-fifth of the area, and contain a large amount of oak, Quercus suber, robur and cerris. In Sicily the forests have long been felled, save the zone at the base of Mount Etna.

The destruction of woods has been gradual but persistent; at the end of the 17th century the effects of denudation were first felt in the destructive force given to mountain torrents by the deforesting of the Apennines. The work of devastation continued until a comparatively recent time.

In 1867 the monastic property of Vallombrosa, Tuscany, 30 m. from Florence, was purchased by government for the purposes of a forest academy, which was opened in 1869. As only 4% of the total forest area belongs to the state, it is doubtful whether much good can now be done.

Great Britain and Ireland.—The British Isles were formerly much more extensively wooded than at present. The rapid increase of population led to the disforesting of woodland; the climate required the maintenance of household fires during a great part of the year, and the increasing demand for arable land and the extension of manufacturing industries combined to cause the diminution of woodland. The proportion of forest is now very small, and yields but a fraction of the required annual supply of timber which is imported with facility from America, northern Europe and the numerous British colonies.

Owing to the nature of the climate of the British Islands, with its abundance of atmospheric moisture and freedom from such extremes of heat and cold as are prevalent in continental